Salvation

In the last lesson on
Faith (Faith 3)we looked at the verse, Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. We focused on who Jesus Christ
is. In this lesson, I want to talk
about the word believe. In the earlier lessons on faith (Faith 1 and Faith 2), I
talked about believing, or trusting, in something or someone even if you cannot
see them. The subject of our belief, in this verse and throughout the Bible, is Jesus. If you have any questions on believing, look back at the lessons: Faith 1and 2. Notice the last part of this verse, you shall be
saved. Why do we need to be saved?

Let me ask you some
questions. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever taken anything that didn’t
belong to you? Have you ever disobeyed your Mom or Dad? Those things: lying,
stealing, and disobeying are called sins. A sin is any thought or action against
God. God says in His word that we should obey our parents. We should not steal,
kill, lie, or think evil of anyone. God has 10 Commandments that He gave Moses
in the Bible for His people. A commandment is a firm law or instruction we need
to follow. You can see the 10 Commandments in Exodus chapter 20.

God is Holy. Holy means
perfect and without sin. Heaven is the place where God dwells. It is full of
angels praising Him. It is a beautiful place where Jesus is waiting for the
time we can come and join Him there. Golden streets, a beautiful river,
flowers, trees, mansions, and many more wonderful things fill heaven. Jesus
said He was building a place for us there. You may know someone who trusted
Jesus as their Savior and later died and is now in Heaven. Heaven is a Holy
place that is filled with God’s glory because God is there.

God cannot let sin into
his presence in Heaven. This makes a problem for us. We are sinners. At the beginning
of this lesson I talked about sin. We have sinned. I have told a lie, stolen, and
disobeyed. This makes me a sinner. You also have sinned. The Bible says in Romans 3:23
“All havesinned and fall short of the glory of God.” All means every person ever born. Because we have sinned, we cannot
come close to the glory of God.

So the day in November
years ago when I was born, I was born a sinner. Even though I was extremely
cute, I was still a sinner. That means I cannot, on my own, make it into heaven.
You, cute as you were on the day you were born, were also born a sinner and cannot
make it into heaven on your own. We can never be good enough or do enough good
things for the perfect God.

What does that mean? What
shall we do? If we cannot get into heaven on our own, what can be done? God knows
what had to be done. God knows everything. God knew this was a problem even
before He made Adam and Eve. God knew that people would sin and sin had to be
paid for. The Bible says, “For the wages
ofsin is death, but thegift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.” Wages are payment. Let’s say I asked you to mow my lawn. When
you were finished mowing my lawn, I would be in debt to you until I paid you for
that job. Payment to you would be your wage. Sin is a debt to God and needs to
be paid.

In the Old Testament of
the Bible, God made it very clear that when sin was committed, it needed to be
paid by something dying. Blood needed to be shed to cover that sin. God created
Adam and Eve. They were the very first people ever to live. He created a
beautiful place for them to live in called the Garden of Eden.Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden by
disobeying God. God told them not to eat from a particular tree. God said they
could eat from all the trees except for one. They ate from that tree, disobeying God.
The sin had to be paid for by something dying and spilling its blood. God
killed a lamb as payment for their sin. The blood of the lamb was shed as a
picture to cover their sin. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:22c …without the shedding of blood there is no
remission. Remission is another word for forgiveness.

Our payment for our sin
is death. That means someone has to die for my sin, your sin, and everyone’s
sin. That someone needs to be without sin, or perfect, for the payment. How can
sin pay for sin? It can't. If I died for myself, that wouldn’t work because I am not without
sin. The person paying for my sin has to be without sin. That Person is God the
Son, Jesus Christ. He is our Savior. Jesus, being God, is perfect. He is without sin. He never told a lie,
stole, or disobeyed His parents. He never did anything wrong. He never sinned. When
Jesus Christ grew up and became a man, He took all our sin on Himself. He died
for that sin on the cross.His perfect, sinless blood was the payment, the wage, for our sin. Wow! He
died for my sin. He died for your sin! He died for everyone’s sin!

Jesus also conquered
death. After He died He was buried. He was placed in a grave, and on the third
day, He arose!He walked with His
friends on the earth. That means He is alive! Then, He went to Heaven to sit on
the right side of God. He is in Heaven waiting for us. He loves us so much that
He did all those things for us.

There is only one thing
you can do about all of this. That one thing is to believe, or trust, in what
God did for you on the cross to forgive your sin debt. When I was a little girl
of five years old, I asked my daddy, “How can I go to heaven?” He explained to
me that I was a sinner. I needed to have someone pay for my sin. Jesus paid for
my sin on the cross. I just needed to have faith, to believe in him to take away
my sin. That day, I asked Jesus to be my Savior. I thanked Jesus for dying for
my sin. Because I did that, one day after I die, I will be in heaven. I did
what the verse at the beginning of our lesson says. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” Earlier I
mentioned a verse, “For the wages ofsin is death, but thegift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.” The last part of the verse talks about the gift from God is
eternal life. The word eternal means forever.If we trust Jesus for what He did for us on the cross, we get the
free gift. The free gift is to go to heaven someday and live with Him forever.

Have you trusted Jesus
Christ as your Savior? Do you have faith in him? I hope so because I want to
meet you in heaven someday!

If you need to do this, ask your parents or Pastor
and they will be able to help you. I am
praying for you. If you have a question for me, you can write it in the comment
box at the end of this or any of the lessons.

Memorize:Acts16:31 Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

If you already know
that verse, pick another one from the lesson to learn, and say it to someone. If
you know all of them, then say all of them to someone.